Popiglio

The town of Popiglio was an ancient fief of the Guidi counts around the year 1000 and today its history is amply demonstrated by the richness of its artistic heritage. Due to its strategic position to control the territory on the Lucca border, it was often the center of the bitter wars between Pistoia and Lucca, which saw the destruction of the fortified village on several occasions. Significant traces of the past are evident in the towers and remains of the medieval castle, in the architectural structure of the town with the access gates, but above all in the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, one of the most important sacred monuments of the Pistoia Mountains. Founded in 1271, the church preserves its Romanesque structure on the outside, with the façade decorated with stone bas-reliefs, while the interior space was modified in the second half of the sixteenth century and enriched over the centuries with works of art of great value that still amaze the visitor. The nearby Museum of Sacred Art, set up in the ancient sacristy and oratory of the Corpus Domini Company, which collects paintings, sculptures, furnishings and liturgical vestments, completes this important journey of popular art and religiosity included in the Ecomuseum of the Pistoia Mountains system. From the parish church, four suggestive itineraries start that follow the paths of the ancient Rogations, one of which descends towards the Lima torrent and leads to the medieval bridge with a single arch called Castruccio, an enchanted place, immersed in greenery, almost out of time. [texts by the Tourism Service of the province of Pistoia]